Understanding the Power in Praise

Paul said, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ for you" (1 Thess. 5:16 - 18, NKJV, emphasis added).


A Bible-believing Christian is expected to do three things in his Christian walk - Rejoice always, pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks. It also implies that if a believer who fails to do that is not walking in the will of God.


Please refer to my previous message - "Pray without Ceasing". This message concerns the other two things - "Rejoice always" and "In everything give thanks".


What does it mean to rejoice always and in everything give thanks? Paul said that we can always find something to be thankful to God. In fact God wants us to praise Him and thank Him and rejoice in all circumstances, even in hardship, suffering and affliction; in bad times or in good times.


According to Paul to "give thanks always for all things" is expected of all Spirit-filled Christians:


"And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God" (Eph. 5:18 - 21, emphasis added).


The things that a Spirit filled believer does are:


1. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs - praising God.


2. Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord - rejoicing.


3. Giving thanks always for all things - in all circumstances, all situations, sicknesses and pain etc.


4. Submitting to one another in the fear of God.


Any believer who does not have these experiences might not be Spirit filled. He could have been baptized in the Holy Spirit at one time, but at this particular moment he might not be Spirit filled.


Praise is a sacrifice


It is just as important to praise God in the midst of your problems and difficulties as in any other time. You need to praise God even on those days when it seems impossible to find anything good to say to God or to anyone else.


Praising God is not always easy. When things are rough, when you are sick, when yours friends and family members ridicule you for your faith, when you don't know where to turn to, then it takes real effort and determination to praise God. Also, in the midst of difficult trials, it is hard not to indulge in self-pity and feel sorry for yourself!


God wants us to praise Him even when circumstances are at their worst.


The writer of Hebrews said, "Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name" (Heb. 13:15, emphasis added).


Notice that the Bible calls praise a sacrifice! Any time you exert special effort at the expense of your own comfort or enjoyment, for the sake of please or obeying God, He will honor that sacrifice. God honors a sacrifice because a sacrifice honors God.


Not only does a sacrifice of praise bring honor to God, but it is also your most effective response to a situation that could bring on fear, doubt, discouragement, and depression. Difficult situations can beat your faith down until it is almost impossible to believe that God will answer your prayer. More than anything else, the sacrifice of praise can build up your faith to receive the victory from God.


The psalmis said, "Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing" (Ps. 107:22).


"I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord (Ps. 116:17).


The Power in Praise


David, the psalmist said, "But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel" (Ps. 22:3, KJV).


No wonder God's power and pressence is near when we praise Him. he actually dwells, inhabits, and resides, in our praises!


Jehoshaphat's victory


A remarkable example of how God works while His children praise Him is found in 2 Chron. 20.


Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, and one day he discovered that his little kingdom was surrounded by the powerful armies of his enemies - the Moabites, the Ammonites, and others. Jehoshaphat knew that little Judah didn't have a chance in its own might, and so he cried out to God:


"O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You" (2 Chron. 20:12, NKJV, emphasis added).


An important step in the act of praising God is to take our eyes off the threatening circumstance and look to God instead. Notice that Jehoshaphat was not just closing his eyes to the threat against his kingdom or pretending the enemies were not there. But he took careful stock of the situation, recognized his own helplessness, and turned to God for help.


We are not to be blind to the very real threats of evil in our lives. Seeing them for what they are only gives us greater cause to praise and thank God for working in them with perfect control and authority. But we are to be preoccupied with the appearance of evil evil around us. See it, admit our helplessness to cope with it in our own strength, then turn to God.


God then said to Jehoshaphat, "Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's" (2 Chron. 20:15).


To me, that is a tremendous statement. We don't have the power to deal with the circumstance of our lives, so obviously, the battle isn't ours, but God's!


The Lord said further, "You will not need to fight in the battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, ..." (Verse 17).


What a promise! All they needed to do was to appoint singers to praise and sing to the Lord. When they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against their enemies (Verse 22).


Many of us are constantly defeated by the cicumstances around us because we are not ready accept that the battle is God's, not ours. God's Word makes it clear that the only way out of that dilemma is the step of faith on our part. We must believe that God's promises are valid, then accepting them, and daring to trust in them whether we understand God's way or not.


Solomon said, "Trust in the Lord will all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths" (Proverbs 3:6, NKJV).


The above is a Biblical principle: "Acceptance comes before understand" - a step of faith in God.


Jehoshaphat would never have dared follow God's plan for the battle if he had insisted on understanding it. God's proposal and promise undoubtedly staggered and went beyond Jehoshaphat's understanding. But he was a man who believed and trusted God. And we should do likewise.


Joshua's victory


Joshua was another leader who received battle orders from God that must have staggered his understanding and challenged his willingness to accept what must have seemed absurd to many who watched. Read Joshua 6:1 - 20 for the account of Joshua's victory. All they needed to do was to march around Jericho, seven times, with seven priest, marched before the Ark of the Covenant, blowing the trumpets of rams' horn (symbolic of praising the Lord). Joshua believed and trusted God and He delivered the enemies of Israel into their hands. Once again, the battle wasn't their but God's.


The examples of Jehoshaphat and Joshua clearly demonstrate that God wins our victories by means and principles that look utterly foolish and contradictory to our human wisdom and strategies. We are told to trust Him, praise Him, and watch Him work.


The danger of grumbling and complaining


Grumbling and complaining come so easy to all of us that we oftern don't realize what we are doing. Notice that, in the eyes of the Lord, grumbling is the very opposite of thanksgiving; a complaint is the opposite of trust; and murmuring is the opposite of acceptance.


The dictionary defines a complaint as an accusation. By complaining and grumbling you are actually accusing God of mismanaging the details of your day. The attitude of praise releases the power of God into your life, but the attitude of murmuring and complaining blocks the power.


Paul said, "And don't grumble as some of them did, for that is why God sent his angel of death to destroy them. All thses events happedned to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us, who live at the time when this age is drawing to a close" (1 Cor. 10:10, 11, NLT).


Paul was speaking about the behavior of the children of Israel on their wanderings from Egypt to the Promised Land. One of the terrible consequences is recorded in Numbers:


"Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord; for the Lord heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them, and conseumed some in the outskirts of the camp" (Numbers 11:1, NKJV).


Forty years the children of Israel wandered, and every time something went wrong, they complained bitterly and wanted to go back to the fleshpots of Egypt. How the Lord dealt with them is recorded in Number 11 - 14.


Paul wrote to the believers at Philippi: "Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world" (Phil. 2:14 - 16, NKJV).


It is our lack of complaining and our joy in Christ that enables us to shine like beacons, holding out the Word of Life in a dark world. It was true in Philippi, and it is true today. Let us stop our grumblings and praise the Lord for every dark and crooked thing we see around us. Do it, and watch God's light penetrate the darkness!


Count it all joy


James said, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect amd complete, lacking nothing" (James 1:2 - 4, NKJV).


Peter said almost the same thing: "In this (your salvation) you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:6, 7).


The method God uses to make our faith grow is to put trials (difficulties, temptations and problems) in our everyday experiences. Through this, our patience, endurance and steadfastness grow. God wants us to trust Him and rely more and more on His promises as we go through these trials.


God showed prophet Jeremiah that he would have to go with the Jews into Babylonian captivity for a lifetime. He said to him, "For I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope" (Jer. 29:11, NLT).


The years of suffering in Babylon were part of God's plan for Jeremiah and the Jews. It was a good plan, the best plan, designed to give them a future and a hope.


God's plan for you and me is also a good plan. But we have to learn to trust Him and rely more and more on His promises. The purifying, the testing of our faith, have to come through circumstances that are a challenge to our determiantion to believe, trust, rely on God's Word, in spite of what our senses tell us. That is why Paul said we should walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7) because "All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).


Conclusion


The main benefit of praise is that it lifts you above circumstances. Meditating on the problems you are facing will not build your faith to solve those problems. You must rise above the circumstances which are defeating you, by reaching up and catching hold of the Hand of God who is higher than you. As you begin to praise God and rejoice in Him, He will lift you up above your sorrows and into an environment of victory.


Praise centers our attention on the Lord rather than on our problems. When the storm of life were coming in on David, threatening to destroy him, he cried out to God:


"Lead me to the rock that is higher than I" (Ps. 61:2).


Praise lifts us up to stand on the Rock, Christ Jesus, who is much greater than any problem we might face!